obasan

From Japanese 小母さん (obasan).

obasan (plural obasans)

1. A Japanese middle-aged woman.
   • 1913 March 6, The Japan Chronicle, old series, number 819; new series, number 583, Kobe, page 423:

     Some day Japanese women may be seen parading the streets bearing banners on which are written “Votes for Women,”—at least what appears to be a movement in this direction was inaugurated last week, says the Far East, when a public meeting for women was held at the Kanda Y. M. C. A. under the auspices of a woman’s periodical, the Blue-Stocking. […] Mere male creatures were allowed to be present, and curious University students who wanted to see what all the fuss was about were obliged to ask the obasans in their neighbourhood if they could seek their protection.

   • 1994, Monumenta Nipponica, page 383:

     Even if osteoporosis is not so common in elderly Japanese women as in Caucasians when measured in terms of bone density and fractures, I am still convinced that the many obasans one sees in Japan bent nearly double did not get that way merely from planting rice.

   • 2001, David L. Eng, Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America, Durham, N.C., London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 120:

     The boys resist the Japanese names by which the obasans of the camp address them as willfully as they renounce any identification with the fragmented body of the aged grandfather.

   • 2004, Janice Valerie Young, Sweet Daruma: A Japan Satire, New York, Lincoln, Shanghai: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, pages 61–62:

     “Yeah,” September replied, “old woman. Push and shove. Often Tokyo obasans cut in line for everything and when they get caught they act innocent. They have power and they know it, like old-lady Morimoto, the drycleaner in our building. Geez, whoever designs obasan clothing should be arrested. Those tan shoes you’re wearing are revolting. I dressed up in those clothes for a Halloween party a few years back. But I didn’t look half as real as you.”

   • 2006, Trevor Carolan, The Pillow Book of Dr Jazz: Travels Along Asia’s Dharma Trail, Ekstasis Editions, →ISBN, page 227:

     Elderly gents in berets walked past us, elegant with walking canes, escorting obasans, grandmothers in gleaming tabi socks and geta clogs, treading lightly upon the path with a fixedness approaching solemnity.

   • 2007, Chu T’ien-hsin, translated by Howard Goldblatt, The Old Capital: A Novel of Taipei, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, pages 164–165:

     You were nearly hypnotized by the enchanting aroma of the smoke, but managed to keep a steady pace, not wanting to be pegged as a tourist by two obasans, who, cheeks red from the cold, were chatting while cradling grandchildren in their arms.

   • 2011, Yuri Kageyama, The New and Selected Yuri: Writing From Peeling Till Now, Ishmael Reed Publishing Company/Xlibris, →ISBN, pages 107–108:

     Have you noticed what word the sales people at Shibuya 109, the Kiyoto “maiko” and night club hostesses use to refer to older women to avoid saying “obasan?” […] Miu: Oh, wasn’t there some minister who got in trouble for calling women “reproductive machines?” Me: Exactly. That mentality. There are lots of women in their 30s and older who truly dread being called “obasan.” If it hasn’t happened already, then it could happen any second. Horrors! Miu: Moment of metamorphosis. Society decrees you useless for preservation of the species. Me: I like being obasan. I am proud of being obasan. Miu: OK, obasan. Me: Obasan is a title that you earn as a woman when you grow older and wiser and better. […] Me: Women should be proud of being obasan. Miu: Of course. Me: Obasan Power! Miu: That’s a good way to put it. Me: But all you see in the Japanese media much of the time are obasans rushing to bargains, gossiping, taking flamenco lessons. Miu: What’s the solution? Me: I’m not sure. Data show Japanese women are choosing not to get married and not to have children, even if they do by some miracle get married.

   • 2012, William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, compilers, History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook, Soyinfo Center, →ISBN, page 452:

     Obasans. Every block in Tokyo has one such lady who sees that everyone on the block packages their garbage correctly.

   • 2020, M. David Scoble, Zach Tragic in Forgotten Tokyo: A Near-Future Bad Luck Thriller, Moogi and Wil Books:

     “Obasan, not now.” CDI Jones was unduly rude. Although Matsumoto-sama was somewhere in her forties like me, I considered rude to address her as ‘obasan.’ […] “Flowers?” Zach asked. “For the obasans.” Wakabayashi said as if it was obvious.

   • 2021, Harmony Becker, Himawari House, First Second, page 348:

     When I talk to the neighborhood obasans back home, I talk a lot more simply.

2. A Japanese aunt.
   • 1985, Kenneth Fenter, Mo Ichido, Once More: An American Family in Japan, the Second Year, Cross Cultural Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     "This woman really my aunt, my obasan, but I call her my grandmother, obaasan. […]"

   • 1992, Wilhelm G. Busse, editor, Anglistentag 1991 Dusseldorf: Proceedings, Max Niemeyer Verlag, page 380:

     In the novel [Obasan] Naomi stands between two obasans, the one of the title, her great-aunt, the other aunt Emily, her mother’s sister.

   • 2003, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, volume 24, page 139:

     When Naomi’s uncle dies, Naomi travels home to her obasan, where she is newly confronted with questions about her mother’s inexplicable and permanent disappearance before the war when Naomi was still a small child.

   • 2014, Julia Rios, Alisa Krasnostein, editors, Year’s Best: Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2013, Twelfth Planet Press, →ISBN:

     She forced her thoughts into it, thought hard about the sakura viewing festivals and her obasan’s beloved samisen as she sang traditional songs under the cherry blossom trees.

   • 2020, R.K. Lindsey, Jr., Waimea I Ka La’i, iUniverse, →ISBN:

     I see my best friends, Walter Okura and Alvin Wakayama, with their obasans and moms visiting the very spot where Buddha attained Enlightenment.

   • 2021, Wesley Leon Aroozoo, chapter 20, in The Punkhawala and the Prostitute, Epigram Books, →ISBN:

     After more than three months of staying with her obasan and ojisan, she could finally go home.

obasan

1. Rōmaji transcription of おばさん